# Weinberg on Writing - Gerald M. Weinberg Published: 2005 by Dorset House  [[🕸️ Writing]] [[Ideation and brainstorming]] [[Creativity]] _Notes from 2021 sometime:_ Here are some notes taken while reading Weinberg on Writing, and links to Zettels they inspire. I’ll also just dump whatever assignment I feel writing in here. ## Exercises - [[Weinberg on Writing - First assignment]] (what would you want to write?) - [[Weinberg on Writing - Second assignment]] (how would you convert what you are not free to write about into a one you care about) - [[Weinberg on Writing - Learning by Copying assignment]] ## Chapter 1: The most important writing lesson 📝 [[ZK - Never work on music you don’t care about]] 📝 [[ZK - 5f1c - Use routines to get over starting block]] ## Chapter 3: Banishing writer’s block ``` Most often, they stop writing because they don’t know how to work with the essential randomness involved in the creative process. ``` 📝 [[ZK - 5e2 - Creative block is not dealing with the randomness of the creative process]] 📝 [[ZK - 5e1 - Creative block is a deficiency in methodology]] > [!quote] Writer's block is not a disorder in you, the writer. It's a deficiency in your writing methods. > Weinberg on Writing - p. 19 Later on, he echoes: ![[ZK - 5e4 - Always make music]] I wrote up the quote above in [[ZK - To counter creative block, keep a list of keep-moving activities]]. ## Chapter 4: Prospecting - Gathering explained [[Gerald M. Weinberg]] is big on the concept of [[Energy]], the emotional response to the writing. > [!quote] How do I know if my students have struck gold, or even coal? I know from their _response_. The stone itself is not the key to effective writing. _The key to effective writing is the human emotional response to the stone_. As a writer, if I respond to a particular stone with tears of joy or sadness, I know that others will, too. > Gerald Weinberg - Weinberg on Writing - p. 27 This brings up parallels to the concept of "vivid" prompts in [[ARTICLE - How to write good prompts - Andy Matuschak]]. Vivid = elicit a response. 📝 [[ZK - Good atomic notes elicit a response in the reader]] He further elaborates: > [!quote] If I don't respond, my readers probably won't either. That's the secret of the Fieldstone Method: _Always be guided by emotional responses_, or, as Fieldstone writers say, by the _energy_ – the heat that the coal provides when it burns inside of you. > Gerald Weinberg - Weinberg on Writing - p. 27 The next part I think I don't understand yet. There is way more to this principle of energy that I can relate to yet, because I have not put it into practice consciously. > [!quote] Many people have difficulty believing that the secret isn't in the stone, but in the _response_ to the stone. > Gerald M. Weinberg - Weinberg on Writing - p. 27